[OT] Communicating without grid power

[gfretwell]

Interesting. I have never lost POTS service in 32 years of hurricanes and lesser storms. It helps a lot that our phone system uses buried fiber up to the head end on the street and buried copper for the last leg to the house. It also makes DSL go pretty fast. I ditched Comcast after Charley when we were down for 2 1/2 weeks and when Wilma hit, my DSL was only out for about an hour. The phone itself kept going and I was able to do stuff online on dial up. The satellite was useless during the actual storm but was back right after. My antenna still got the local news just fine throughout the whole storm.

[Steve Stone]

E-mail With or Without the Internet

This Powerpoint presentation describes the Winlink system in all it's modes of operation--from the traditional, internet-linked server network to the Hybrid and Peer-to-Peer RF-linked networks that provide both fast message transport and reliable delivery with or without working internet connections. Introduces radio-only operation for users.

Amateur Radio License NOT included!

[gfretwell]

I remember E-mail long before the internet was available to the masses. Services like Compuserve were out there when PCs in the home were still fairly rare. By the time the IBM PC started rolling out in any real quantity we had Prodigy and later AOL. They were fairly mature services by the time the internet was added.

Internally many companies had E-mail under different names and there was usually a dial up portal into the network.

[Roger Blake]

We also had Usenet mail, which needed to be manually routed using "bang paths" to the destination. Users would usually give their email addresses in relation to a well-known host such as ihnp4 or decwrl, such as:

...ihnp4!invxc!isrnix!zipvax!gomez

So in the above example (based on a piece of scrap paper in my drawer) if you knew the path to "ihnp4" you could then complete the path to send email to user gomez on host zipvax.

This was in the days when Usenet was still transported over UUCP rather than the internet, and dinosaurs roamed the earth.

[Stormin Mormon]

Can't remember where I read, might been here. Anyhow, a phone company decided to save expenses by using mobile generators, and shuttle them from cell site to site. One of the local workers reminded them that during ice storms, it's near to impossible to drive any where, much less up cell phone hills to get to the towers.

- . Christopher A. Young learn more about Jesus .

. .

[taxed and spent]

Most cell towers are down in the flatlands, with the cell phones. But, a good point.

[Steve Stone]

I was a Fidonet SysOp for a few years, running RBBS-PC on an 8088 based IBM PC with over 500 users.

Prodigy was originally called Trintex, a joint venture between three companies. It was the first online service I had seen with ads running on the bottom of the screen.

I go back a ways in telecommunications. My first "IT" job was stripping down Teletype machines for rebuilding at a Western Union shop in Mahwah , NJ

Steve

[Steve Stone]

A local ham radio club has a few repeaters co sited at friendly cellphone tower sites. Those with stationary diesel generators usually only have enough fuel to last 3 days.

Steve

[taxed and spent]

I had my own teletype machines when I was a kid. Cool gear!

[gfretwell]

We had a few guys at work who were running TTY on ham radio. I wasn't really into that but I did install one of the first Arpanet terminals in the DC area. (Army STRATCOM in Olney)

It was a real "hole in the ground" ;-)

[taxed and spent]

yes, TTYs were a common computer interface back then. Where else would you find a computer printer?

[gregz]

CB radio too, batteries, solar charging. Amateur repeaters will not work on battery for long without solar backup.

Greg

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

I might not have lost wired phone if the wires were underground here. Instead they're overhead, and in the middle of the block around a lot of trees.

I had wireless internet through Sprint. As for TV, antenna would work but I had plenty of DVR recordings.

[Dean Hoffman]

We can't even buy a candy bar at the local stores without grid power. Has anyone seen a backup generator at the local gas station?

[Stormin Mormon]

Sadly, most stores are computer operated. Need the computer to resupply, based on computer recorded sales.

Years ago, I heard of one family owned store doing shopping by flash light, pad, and cash only. During a power cut. Made sense, to me.

Last power cut, the convenience store near me had two candles, and a very weak 2D Never Ready flash light in the place. I chatted a few minutes, and he didn't sell much during that time.

- . Christopher A. Young learn more about Jesus .

. .

[Scott Lurndal]

I was using email to communicate with folks in hawaii back in 1978 on PLATO systems. PLATO[*] predates the internet by 25 years. We also had IM (instant messaging) in the 70's (TSS-8.24, MPE/3000 and most mainframes).

[*] Had the best computer games, too. Plasma panel graphics (monocolor) and nationwide multiuser access allowed players from all over the country to compete in space games (Empire) and dungeons-n-dragons (DND) using (rather massive) graphics terminals.

[gfretwell]

My main reason for ditching Comcast was my Replay bricked on me after the initial power failure and I could not get back online to reset it. I couldn't even get in to switch it to "phone" update.

[gfretwell]

It is law in Florida. If they are on an evacuation route, they need backup power.

[taxed and spent]

Is it the law that they have to stay open and not evacuate themselves?

[gfretwell]

We maintained a lot of "point of sale" and it was always funny to watch them try to run the store without the registers. Older workers seem to do fine but the "kids" (up to 30 sumpin) needed a calculator, just to make change. They were still slow and confused by the process. The fact that nothing was priced made it even harder. I have seen grocery stores where they had a manager just stand there and dicker with the customer, guessing how much a cart of groceries was worth. The customer usually had a better idea than the manager but they usually started low.